Halo: The Final Countdown
by general MB
Summary: The covenant have found Earth and have begun their vicious war campaign. Now, the only hope for Earth's future, may lie in the past. -ON HOLD-
1. prologue

**Message from the general**: ok this fic is technically a crossover between Halo and the movie the final countdown, but you don't have to see the movie in order to get the basic idea of the story. I'd still recommend getting the movie because its actually pretty entertaining. Anyway, enjoy and don't forget a review

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo **

**prologue**

November 10, 2009

secured transmission on USN SATCOM

**report regarding incident involving CVN-76 in the Scotia sea on 10/22/09:**

In late October, CVN-76 was participating in joint NATO exercises in the Scotia sea. During one exercise, the battlegroup was ordered to spread out and conduct a live fire missile intercept exercise. A malfunction occurred and CVN-76 suffered minor damage to SATCOM and short wave arrays. Several aircraft as well as marine and air wing personnel were lost. Repairs took several days to complete which left the ship immobile. In actuality the carrier disappeared in a similar weather phenomenon encountered by CVN-68 on 6/12/80. Because of the high nature of this report, none of what you're about to read

...ever happened


	2. Chapter 1: a peculiar storm

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or anything associated with the US navy**

**chapter 1: a peculiar storm**

October 25, 2009

location: the Scotia sea- USS _Ronald Reagan_ CVN-76

Captain David Schulz stared out the window of the main bridge of the aircraft carrier _Ronald Reagan. _She was the second newest aircraft carrier in service, behind the _George HW Bush_ which launched earlier in the year. She had also gone in for her refit and was now armed with three CIWS mounts, one of the systems they would be testing in this new exercise. The real purpose of the exercise was to test a new system that would allow the carrier to link up the missile interception systems of the ships in its battlegroup, there by providing a blanket of anti-missile and anti-fighter protection for the carrier.

"Skipper" said Schulz's executive officer, commander Maxwell Young. "Just got a message from CAG. He's reached altitude with roundtop and is still waiting for Wagner."

"That girl probably overslept" said Schulz "did you tell CAG he can handle it with a two ship formation?"

"He still wants to show her the ropes a little" Young replied "he said he's more than willing to wait, the destroyers still have a bit of maneuvering, should take about 45 minutes.

At that, Schulz looked out the window again at the destroyers of the Reagan's battlegroup as they moved apart, spacing themselves for the exercise. On the flight deck, planes were being taxied around, one was being inspected by the ground crews, an F/A-18 hornet that belonged to lieutenant Jessica (hammerhead) Wagner.

--

Below decks in a private room, Jessica Wagner was getting dressed when a muscular arm grabbed hers.

"Come back to bed" the man in her bed whispered.

"Billy, cut this out" Jessica said as she broke free "this was a mistake."

"That's not what you thought last night" said marine sergeant William Banks. Like Wagner he was 28 years old had had secretly harbored a crush for his superior officer. When he kissed her the night before she returned the favor, seemed she liked him as well. But now Wagner was regretting the night before. After sleeping with the marine she got the feeling that he was the abusive type, perhaps it was his tough look and his marine buzz-cut that gave Jessica this feeling. All she knew is, this had to stop.

"I don't get it Jess?" Said Banks "didn't you enjoy last night? Or is that what you were after, a good fuck."

"Watch your mouth, sergeant" Jessica snapped.

"Don't give me any of that" said Banks as he got out of bed and wrapped his arms around Jessica, then kissed her. "We both wanted this."

"Leave me alone" Jessica said as she shoved him away. "Get this through your skull, jarhead. There is no us, last night never happened."

"So you were just looking for a good time"

"forget it" said Jessica as she pulled on her flight suit and grabbed her flight vest. "You better make sure no one sees you leave" she said as she left her quarters and headed for her squadron room to get her helmet and the rest of her flight gear. It had only been 15 years since women were allowed to serve on carriers and incidents like what happened between her and Banks were now commonplace. She had once found the marine a bit handsome and admitted to herself that she was attracted to him. Then things went overboard last night after he cornered her in the hall, she didn't know what compelled her to bring the marine back to her room and start riping his clothes off. Maybe she was just looking for a good time. Jessica finally reached the locker room and gathered the rest of her gear. She pulled her blond hair back and into a ponytail on the fly as she darted up the various stairs until she arrived on the flight deck. No other aircraft were scheduled to be in the air during the exercise and the last of the CAP was being recovered. Jessica was ushered to her waiting F/A-18 as it underwent final inspection. As a pilot she was required to also inspect her plane, for this mission she was only armed with her gun and a pair of AIM-20 AMRAAM missiles mounted on the wingtips. She settled into the cockpit and began her ten minute preflight, then was locked and loaded onto one of the carrier's steam catapults. The ground crew gave her the green and a second later she was slammed into the back of her ejection seat as her plane accelerated off the carrier deck and into the sky. She was placed into a holding pattern until the air wing commander, more commonly known as the CAG and his second in command came up behind Jessica's hornet.

"_What kept you"_ CAG asked over the radio.

"Overslept, sir. Won't happen again" Jessica replied.

"_Make sure you don't"_ said CAG _"we'll be up here for about ten more minutes until the battlegroup can finish spacing out."_

Their mission was to fire a live missile near the _Ronald Reagan _in order for her to test her new defensive capabilities. Two missiles would be used, one for the new interceptor system and another for the Reagan's new CIWS mounts.

"_Hey, take a look at that"_ said roundtop "_got some clouds moving in."_

"_hammerhead, report this to CIC, and get me a weather check"_ CAG ordered.

"Aye, sir" Jessica said as she switched frequencies. "Eagle control, this is hammerhead."

--

"go ahead" said 2nd officer Robert Quayle as he manned the _Reagan'_s CIC (combat information center) the nerve center for the ship that controlled its aircraft deployment and ran radar and communications.

"_We've got a spot of bad weather moving in. CAG wants a weather report."_

"Hang on, I'm just getting it now" said Quayle as he was handed a satellite image, sure enough there was a small system moving in on them. "Hammerhead, it looks like we're going to have to cancel the test. I'll bring this to the skipper."

"_Rodger, eagle control"_

Quayle got on the phone to the bridge and informed the XO. When he was finished he turned his attention to the weather images as they flashed across his screen. Then something weird caught his eye. He double checked before printing out a few copies and rushed for the bridge.

--

On the bridge, the captain continued to look out the window. It had grown cloudy all of a sudden and the winds were picking up. There were also faint lighting discharges.

"Wasn't the report for sunny and 70 degrees" the XO joked.

The captain hated having to cancel a very important training exercise like this but they need optimum conditions for the test. "Recall our birds and lets get the destroyers back in formation" Schulz ordered. The captain decided to issue the recall ordered himself but as he picked up the phone, Quayle rushed onto the bridge carrying satellite printouts.

"Captain, you have to take a look at this" he said as he rushed over to his side.

"What you should be doing is checking our weather instruments" the captain said jokingly.

"Sir, I think you're right" said Quayle as he placed one of the satellite shots in front of the captain "one minute the storm system is there" he took out another printout taken a few moments later, the storm was completely gone. The captain snatched both sheets of paper and began a cursory inspection of the date stamps, they were only about a minute off.

"The barometer is also way up when it should be down, even compasses are malfunctioning" Quayle reported. But the captain's attention was focused on the satellite photos, a grim look came across his face.

--

"_Hammerhead, land first"_ CAG ordered as the three F/A-18s came in behind the _Reagan_.

"Sir, you should be the one to land first" Jessica protested.

"_I don't land until everyone of my pilots land"_ CAG said _"something you should realize as a pilot"_

"_relax, kid"_ said roundtop "_you'll do fine, no one's crashed in bad weather in 15 years"._

"Easy for you to say" Jessica said under her breath as she lowered her hook and extended her landing gears. She always hated landing her bird on the carrier, and nearly flunked storm landings in the simulators. But something was different, her instruments read the wind speed at 0. Something wasn't right about this storm.

"_Hammerhead.... orm....pul... wa... ff"_

"Say again, CAG" Jessica said into her radio, only static answered her. She could see the controllers signal to her, she had to land now, worry about what CAG had said later.

"_Hammerhead, Reagan control. Checkers green. Call the ball."_

"Rodger, _Reagan_. I have the ball." She pitched her plane down then up slightly to let the hook grab hold of the braking cable. She once again slammed into her seat as the sudden gees of deceleration slammed into her fighter. Once secured she taxied off the landing deck and over to a holding area of the flight deck. Powered down her engines and exited the aircraft, she looked aft and tried to find CAG and roundtop, lighting discharges were becoming more frequent. Then she spotted roundtop on approach, CAG not far behind. Suddenly a lighting bolt struck CAG's plane and traveled to roundtop's. The signal officer ordered them to wave off, but both planes plunged into the ocean. Alarms began blaring on the flight deck and Jessica ran aft, but none of the emergency teams sprang into action, in fact, everyone was looking forward. Jessica turned her head and her moth fell agape at what she was seeing.

--

The captain dropped both printouts when he looked up and saw it, a blue tunnel of energy appeared right in front of the carrier, its tendrils wrapped around the ship. A lighting bolt disabled all the electronics and radar, the carrier was left helpless. Suddenly an ear splitting whine incapacitated the crew, shattered some glass status boards and blew out a few electronics. But just as suddenly as it came, the storm and the energy vortex disappeared. The sky was just as calm as before.


	3. Chapter 2: This is the USS Ronald Reagan

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or anything associated with the US navy**

**chapter 2: This is the USS _Ronald Reagan_, where the hell are we?**

/system error/ October 25, 2009

/system error/ location: the Scotia sea, USS _Ronald Reagan _

The crew slowly regained their posture and sprang into action, requesting damage reports. On the bridge, captain Schulz rubbed his temples, his ears were still ringing.

"What the hell was that?" Said commander Young.

Schulz took a deep breath and stood firm, then addressed his crew. "Sound general quarters, set condition 2."

The officer of the watch acknowledged the order and grabbed the intercom. "General quarters, all hands" he shouted.

"Captain, the destroyers, they're gone" said Young. The captain looked out and sure enough, the entire battlegroup had disappeared. Suddenly lieutenant Wagner burst onto the bridge, out of breath. Her flight helmet clattered to the deck as she dropped it.

"Sir... CAG and roundtop, they're gone."

"Slow down, lieutenant" said Schulz "what happened?"

"Their planes went down on approach" said Jessica "when what ever the hell hit us left, the wreckage was gone."

"Wagner, Young, Quayle, with me" said Schulz as he pushed past them. His subordinates followed him down a few levels to the CIC. A few stations in the room had been damaged during the storm but the CIC was still operational. Quayle took his station and tried to establish a SATCOM uplink.

"Captain, I can't raise SOUTHCOM" he reported.

"Radar picture?" Schulz asked.

"Radar's clear" said a petty officer manning that particular station.

"Are we picking up any communications on friendly frequencies?"

"Negative, skipper" said another petty officer.

"Lieutenant" Schulz said and Wagner came forward "I want a CAP in the air and two more fighters on a one hour alert."

"Sir?"

"You're senior pilot now" said Schulz "I have to write CAG and roundtop off as MIA. Chain of command falls to you."

"Sir, lieutenant Knight is a much more capable pilot than I am. He should get command of the air wing."

"Lieutenant, I know how you must feel right now" said Schulz as he set a hand on her shoulder "what would CAG want you to do? If your dad was here he would want you to step up."

"Yes, sir" said Jessica as she left the CIC and headed for the pilot's ready room. The captain turned his attention back to the rest of the senior officers. "Young, I'm going to my quarters, I am not to be disturbed unless absolutely necessary."

"Aye, sir" said Young.

The captain left the CIC and went down several decks to his quarters. He saluted the marine guard and entered the executive cabin. He sat down at his desk and removed the safe key hanging around his neck and tucked underneath his uniform. Schulz inserted the key into the safe built into the wall and opened it. He removed a black procedure book entitled: Yelland protocol **top secret.**

--

Jessica was rushing through the halls toward the pilot ready room, after collecting her helmet. Suddenly sergeant Banks walked up behind her and matched Jessica's pace.

"Jess, I herd what happened."

"I appreciate your concern, sergeant" said Jessica as she tried to speed up, but Banks matched her speed.

"Don't give me that crap. Can't you see I'm really concerned here?"

Jessica came to a stop in the middle of the corridor. "Billy I told you, it never happened."

"Quit toying around" Billy said in a harsh tone.

"Its general quarters" said Jessica "report to your duty station". She marched off and left a fuming Billy in the hall. Jessica double timed it to the ready room, the other pilots of her squadron were seated in their chairs. "I'm sure all of you have heard about the CAG's death. What you don't know is that I've been given command of the air wing my the skipper. So all flight decisions go through me, am I clear?"

"Crystal, sir" the pilots cried.

"Good. Now the CO wants a CAP in the air ASAP. And two more jets on a one hour alert. Knight."

"Sir" said lieutenant Ben (knightrider) Knight as he stood up.

"You're with me on the CAP. Hookline and boomer, you're sitting alert, dismissed."

Everyone cleared out except lieutenant Knight who came over to the podium. Jessica let out a sigh and faced Knight. "How did I do?"

Knight smiled and said "you nailed it, CAG would be proud."

Jessica returned the smile and gave Knight a slap on the arm. "Come on, lets get this CAP over with."

--

Jessica flew her F/A-18 in formation with Knight's over the calm ocean. Her GPS instruments like those of the Reagan's were not functioning, instead she was forced to rely on her backup avionics.

"_What do you think happened?"_ Knight asked "_with that storm and all, then the whole battlegroup. You think it was some kind of new weapon?"_

"Haven't got a clue, knightrider" Jessica replied "but this isn't what the Navy pays us for."

"_Just making conversation, hammerhead" _said Knight. "_Hang on a sec... tally ho, I've got contacts. Three of them. South of us and moving fast on a parallel course."_

"Ok then, lets take a look" said Jessica as she pitched her super hornet left and her wingman followed.

* * *

October 25, 2552

location: Earth, Antarctica, MT Erebus- covenant excavation site

A jackal moved cautiously across the snowy tundra, carbine in its arms as it conducted it's patrol route. It noticed a flurry of movement in its peripheral vision and turned to face a snow bank. Before it knew what happened, a bullet penetrated it's environment suit and blew its brains out over the back of the helmet. Two figures wearing white cloaks got up from the snowbank, they kept their heads low so no nearby covenant would spot their gold faceplates under the cloak's hood.

"Nice shot" the lead figure, Senior Chief Petty Officer Fred-104 said into his COM.

"_You owe me one, later"_ replied petty officer Linda-058 from her concealed position several clicks away. Fred turned to his other teammate, petty officer Will-043. Their mission was to destroy an apparent covenant drilling operation on Mount Erebus, using a HAVOK tactical nuke. Will had the nuke in his white satchel. Both Spartans kept low to the snow floor as they made their way over to a rise, below them was a full company of covenant troops, further on was the base of mount Erebus, and covenant drilling equipment. ONI had authorized them only to plant the nuke in the covenant encampment, not to approach the drill site. Fred and Will kept low to the ground as the crawled along the rise and down to the camp. After making sure their cloaks hadn't been torn they crept around the covenant supply depot, which wasn't as heavily guarded.

"Over here" said Will as he pointed to a rather large container, bing enough to fit two scorpion tanks inside, and still have room to spare. "This is probably what they used to ship the drill equipment down."

"Which means they won't be coming back to this particular crate any time soon" said Fred "let's do it."

The two Spartans moved to the main ramp of the crate and bounded inside. There were a few smaller containers still inside, Fred and Will moved over to one positioned against the container wall. Fred pulled it away and Will slipped in behind and broke out the nuke. The whole process took about five minutes and they replaced the crate with the nuke attached in its original spot. Then made their way to the rendezvous point with Linda. She appeared to be an ordinary snow mound from her crouched position.

"What took you?" she said jokingly.

"No time for antics" said Fred "we still got several clicks to cover". This turned out to be an arduous 20 click trek across the snow, not a problem for the Spartans, their enhanced speed let the make there in only half the time, waiting for them was their pelican dropship.

"About time" said their pilot, sergeant Laura (smokes) Tanner as she fired the dropship's engines, after the Spartans were secure in their seats. Also in the back was crew chief, corporal Jim Higgins. The Spartans removed their white cloaks, underneath they wore their new MJOLNIR Mk VI armor. Just issued to them five days ago, the same day the covenant attacked Earth. The initial assault force was repelled but the covenant sent reinforcements, but they didn't glass the planet like they had done so many times before. Their team leader, John-117 had followed the prophet of regret's carrier when he fled New Mombasa, they hadn't herd from him since.

"We're outside optimum distance" said Tanner "fire away"

"With pleasure" said Fred as he sent the signal. Behind the dropship a new sun flared into existence as the nuke vaporised the covenant presence, as well as half the mountain. Fred leaned back against the seat ad looked out the viewport as the dropship left Antarctica behind and raced for the south Atlantic. Before Fred could start to relax though the pelican entered a steep dive.

"Hang on" said Tanner "we've got banshees on out tail."


	4. Chapter 3: splash two

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or anything associated with the US Navy**

**chapter 3: splash two**

October 25, 2009

location: the Scotia sea- USS _Ronald Reagan _

Captain Schulz was called back to CIC an hour after he left to hear a very unusual report from the CAP. He found commanders Young and Quayle waiting for him when Schulz arrived.

"Sir, hammerhead is reporting three contacts" said Young "we also have them on our scope".

"Any idea what they are?" Schulz asked.

"Two appear to be small planes judging from the radar signature" said Young as he brought the captain over to one of the LCD displays hanging in the darkened room, a radar image was displayed. Two dots bore the transponders of the _Reagan's_ fighters. Three of them about twenty miles south were marked as unknowns, two small dots chasing a third bigger one. The third one starting to move faster, on a heading that would bring them to the _Reagan_ in under 30 minutes.

"Skipper, do you see that?" said Young.

"You're damn right I see it" said Schulz as he went over to the phone and picked it up. "Get hammerhead on the line".

--

"This is hammerhead, go"

"_Hammerhead listen to me very carefully, see if you can get a visual on the unknown but under no circumstances are you to engage. Clear?"_

"Crystal, sir" Jessica replied.

"_Hey, hammerhead. Those targets are closing fast"_ said her wingman , Knight.

"Hit the roof" Jessica ordered. She pulled her super hornet into a steep climb as did Knight. They leveled off at about 9000 ft and watched their radars as the contacts passed a few hundred feet below them, but didn't detect either fighter. Jessica and her wingman baked right and kept on the unknowns six o'clock high. They banked left slightly to get a better look, they didn't know what to make of the scene below. Two strange looking purple aircraft which resembled short beetles, only with glowing blue wings. Were chasing a third craft, his one was an olive brown color and had short stubby wings. The other two were more alien looking than the third which resembled more of a Russian cargo plane.

"_Reagan_ control, hammerhead. We have visual contact with three, I repeat, three unidentified flying objects."

"_Lieutenant, you better not be kidding around here"_ said commander Young.

"You can look at the gun camera footage yourself when I get back" said Jessica. "Advise our orders?" There was silence.

"_Hammerhead!"_ Said Knight.

Jessica looked back down and saw one of the purple craft had slowed, then several bolts of bright light left the craft and one of them struck the top of the other aircraft they were chasing. The large one began to slow and the purple craft matched its speed. Suddenly, Jessica caught sight of tracer rounds leaving the back of the boxy craft, heading for the two purple ones. A stream of white energy bolts left the two alien looking craft but the boxy one put on the brakes and the purple UFOs flew right over them. Suddenly one of Jessica's radio channels flared to life with an unfamiliar voice.

"_Mayday, mayday. This is pelican 390. We've been ambushed by a pair of banshees and have been damaged, we're leaking fuel and have lost offensive capability. Requesting any assistance, now!"_

"_Reagan,_ did you get that message?" Jessica asked. _"Reagan, respond"_.

"_What do you want to do?"_ Knight asked.

"Ok, on my authority we're engaging those two purple unknowns" said Jessica.

_How do we know if the ones they're shooting at aren't the actual bad guys? _

"Because the big one is using bullets and the other two are using lasers, that's how I know" said Jessica "just follow my lead".

"_Roger"_ said Knight as he and Jessica pitched their F/A-18s into a dive.

--

"Hang on" Tanner said as the pelican lurched around after getting hit. Alarms started to buzz and crew Chief Higgins moved to reroute power from his seat behind Tanner, in the cockpit.

"Fuel lines have been ruptured" he reported "I'm rerouting to the reserves. But I doubt the engines are going to hold together for much longer".

"They're slowing down" Tanner said as she watched the scanners "they're going to fire!"

"Not if I can help it" said Fred as he grabbed a chain gun from an overhead compartment. He opened the rear hatch and lowered the overhead stand for the gun, mated the two and opened fire. AP rounds flew at the banshees, some striking but not doing enough damage.

"Hold on" said Tanner as she hit the brakes and the banshees flew right over the pelican. She released the safeties on the dropship's weapons but when she tried to fires she discovered the control systems had been damaged when they got hit. Tanner swore under her breath and corporal Higgins said it would be ten minutes until the weapons control could be rerouted to backup circuits. So Tanner keyed her mic and sent a distress call on all frequencies.

"Mayday, mayday. This is pelican 390. We've been ambushed by a pair of banshees and have been damaged, we're leaking fuel and have lost offensive capability. Requesting any assistance, now!"

"Smokes, they're coming around" said Higgins. Sure enough the banshees had come around and were preparing to finish off the crippled dropship. Her vector stabilizers had just failed which meant she couldn't pull any evasive maneuvers.

"Crap, smokes" said Higgins "we've got two more contacts coming right at us from above. Jesus, they're moving like a bat outta hell!"

Tanner looked forward as two gray blurs passed right in front of the pelican, and the banshees dove in pursuit. Tanner pitched the dropship to the left a little so she could see the action going on beneath them. The two new craft drew the banshees close to the water but then pulled up at the last second and split up, each being chased by a banshee.

--

"I think that got their attention" said Jessica as she pitched her hornet up, and turned after the alien craft pursuing her wingman. The banshee was no match for the F/A-18's superior maneuverability. Jessica still had one on her tail but she was able to shake it for a few seconds, enough time for her to arm one of her AMRAAM missiles.

"Fox three" she cried as she depressed the trigger on her joystick and the missile mounted on her wingtip released, its engine ignited and streaked after her target. The missile was actively radar guided which meant it couldn't be disrupted by ECM, assuming these alien craft had any kind of ECM. Jessica was rewarded with a fireball as the missile made contact with the banshee's fuselage and disintegrated it.

"_Nice shot"_ said Knight "_hold on a sec, I'll clear your six". _

Knight's F/A-18 chased the other pursuing banshee which tried to retreat after discovering its partner had met its end at the hands of Jessica. Only it was destroyed by another AMRAAM from Knight's plane.

"_Hammerhead, this is Reagan control, did you engage those targets!?"_ Schulz's heated voice said over the radio.

"Sir, I acted on my authority due to pressing circumstances. Not to mention I received a call for help from one of the targets" Jessica said.

"_Alright then",_ said Schulz, his voice more calm "_sitrep?"_

"We splashed the two alien looking craft after they fired on the third Jessica reported they also mentioned being damaged and were leaking fuel. Sir the third UFO seemed to have vectored thrust engines which makes it capable of VTOL, request permission to escort it back to the _Reagan_".

"_I am authorizing you to make contact and assess any damage. If they're capable of VTOL then you can bring them back, Reagan control out". _

_--_

"Everyone ok back there?" Tanner asked.

"We're fine" said Fred as he came up into the cockpit "what happened?"

"We owe some flyboys our skins" said Higgins "any idea what the hell they were flying?"

"Beats me" said Tanner "probably some ONI spook prototype".

"Sergeant" Fred said as he spied one of the aircraft take up formation on the right side of the pelican and the other took up position on the left. Fred looked out on the one on the right and activated his HUD zoom. He saw in the cockpit and human looked over, wearing a dull gray helmet and breathing apparatus.

"I've got COM traffic" said Higgins "patching it in".

_This is lieutenant Wagner of US Navy carrier airwing fourteen. Respond._

"What the hell is a US Navy?" Higgins said.

"Didn't they teach you some history, marine?" said Fred "US as in United States".

"Say what!" Tanner exclaimed "that country hasn't been around in 500 years. So what is this, a big prank?"

"Those missiles were sure as hell real" said Higgins.

"Open a channel" said Fred

"Aye, Chief" said Tanner "attention unknown fighters, this is UNSC pelican dropship 390, we hear you."

_I'm directed to ask you if your aircraft is capable of VTOL._

"It is" Tanner replied rather awkwardly.

_I'm also directed to escort you to my carrier ASAP, follow my wingman._

"What now?" Tanner asked.

"They said they had as base" said Higgins "we need to set down in order to repair our fuel lines. We're on the reserve fuel now. Its not enough to get to the closest base or break orbit".

"So I guess we follow them" said Fred.

--

Captain Schulz made his way back to his quarters after issuing orders to prep the flight deck for arrival. He removed the same procedure book from before and skipped to a different section. But just as he donned his reading glasses commander Young burst in, and slammed the door behind him.

"Captain, I want the truth" Young said "you know more about whats going on. I and the crew deserve to know."

"I don't like your tone, commander" Schulz snapped. He leaned back in his chair and exhaled deeply. Then he tossed the book on the desk. Young picked it up and inspected it.

"Yelland protocol? As in captain Matt Yelland?"

"The very same" said Schulz "that storm we ran into... this hasn't been the first time a Navy ship has encountered it."

Young sat down in front of the captain's desk as he continued.

"About 30 years ago Yelland was skipper of the Nimitz. They were conducting exercises off of Hawaii when they ran into that very same storm, the ship disappeared for nearly a day".

"Where did it go?" Young asked.

"The question is where it went, but when. The ship's position remained constant. The storm sent it back in time... to December 6, 1941."

"You're joking!" Young said

"Yelland damn near prevented the pearl harbor attack" said Schulz "but the storm reappeared and he puled his planes back. After they returned to pearl the crew was forced into secrecy. The Navy issued that procedure book, named after Yelland. It dictates the response any Navy ship is to do when they get sucked into the storm. It mostly covers what you are to do in the event of being thrown into the past, there is only a small section on what to do if you're in the future."

"What makes you so sure we're in the future?" Young asked.

"Didn't you hear hammerhead's description of those aircraft? Its the only explanation that fits."

"So what does the magic book tell you to do?"

"Simple, don't interfere with any future affairs" said Schulz "but thanks to hammerhead's stunt out there it seems we're knee deep in some kind of alien war on Earth".

"What happens now?"

"Right now, I want you organizing the flight deck and have major Casey get a marine team on the flight deck" Schulz ordered "and commander, what you learned here, never leaves the room".

"Yes, sir" said Young as he left the captain, who turned back to the procedure book and looked up the section about being thrown into the future.

**A Navy captain's top priority is to safeguard the lives of his crew so try at all possible not to get involved in affairs of the future. You are also directed to observe the following procedure.**

**1. obtain a record of United States military history from the time you left up to the local present time**

**2. obtain any intelligence of enemy state or terrorist groups for the aforementioned timeframe. **

**3. obtain samples or schematics of future weapon systems _(radiological, biological and chemical included)_**


End file.
